The Department of Telecommunications, India has proposed a transfer of numbers from 10 digit to 11 digit from January 2010.

In 2003 Indian Telecom department had planned for 10 digit mobile numbering that would last for 30 years, but given the meteoric rise in the number of mobile subscribers, the quota seems to be over within 5 years.

The growth in mobile subscribers has been nearly 100% year on year reaching 10.81 million wireless subscribers in the month of December 2008. The ten digit numbers are expected to exhaust from August 2009.

However, the fixed line phone numbers would continue to remain as is it is. While all GSM and CDMA subscribers whether old or new, would now have 11 digit numbers.

Apart from India, China and UK follow 11-digit numbers, while USA has a more integrated pattern of common numbering plan with similar numbers for mobile as well as landline numbers, much like Tata ‘Walky’ and Reliance ‘Hello’.